Deborah Fairbrother, chief of the NASA Balloon Program Office (BPO) at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Wallops, Va., will give a free presentation about balloon technology and development on Thursday, April 4, at 7 p.m., in Room 101 of Guerrieri Hall, at Wor-Wic Community College in Salisbury.
In addition to the BPO, Fairbrother also manages the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility (CSBF), in Palestine, Texas. Her NASA balloon technology experience includes materials development and testing, vehicle design and development, structural analyses, performance modeling and planetary balloon developments, as well as the materials component of the super-pressure balloon development, the testing of new balloon films and the redesign of the 8,000 pound lift balloon.
In addition to being a Mercury 7 astronaut scholar, Fairbrother is an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and has received several NASA awards for her ballooning activities.
Fairbrother received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.
This event is sponsored by the cultural diversity committee at Wor-Wic.
For more information, call (410) 572-8711.